Wednesday, September 29, 2004

By Maile Arvin
Gazette Reporter

A significant crowd braved the wind and rain last night to hear artist
Ben Katchor read several of his comic strips and discuss his craft in a
Science Center lecture room. The lecture and performance, entitled “A
Date in Architectural History and Other Stories,” was the first Cooper
Foundation event of the semester, and was additionally supported by
McCabe Library and the Art and English Literature departments. College
president Al Bloom was in attendance, along with Dean Bob Gross, many
students, faculty and other members of the Swarthmore community.
Physics professor Amy Bug introduced the artist by recalling her
delight upon discovering his work in the Village Voice, and passed
around newspaper clippings of his early Julius Knipl series comics. Bug
remarked particularly upon Katchor’s adroit language­“He chooses
proper nouns like Matisse chose colors,” she said.

Katchor, whose comics combine sometimes lengthy blocks of narrative
text and dialogue with skillfully colored drawings of cityscapes and
their inhabitants (“some are about New York, some are invented cities,”
he said), read nearly a dozen of these works as the corresponding
images were displayed on a screen.
His performance lent each comic strip extra character as he told his
stories peopled with men who empty the crumb traps of apartment
dwellers’ toasters and patron saints of jaywalkers. One strip mused
about the origins of the light switch’s “click,” another on the
architectural beauty of the human lap, and one imagined a future in
which condiments are only available in single serving packages. The
audience laughed often and applauded after each strip.

During the course of answering questions after his reading, Katchor
commented on college campuses as paradises in the middle of the
commercial world and called Swarthmore a “country club college… nicer
than a country club, actually.” He spoke of his work as striving
towards using a “full spectrum of meanings,” from the abstraction of
the written word to the more concrete and alive visual image. Comics
were an accessible, living art form to him as a child growing up in
Brooklyn, he said, and he continues to enjoy the freeness of the medium.

Most of the comics Katchor presented have been published in Metropolis
magazine, and his musical theatrical piece The Rosenbach Company
recently premiered in Philadelphia. An exhibit of his work will be on
display in McCabe until October 12.

*****

* Spokesmen for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News said on Tuesday that they
would not abide by some of the restrictions placed on camera use in the
agreement reached by the Bush and Kerry campaigns setting the rules for
the upcoming presidential debates. The first debate of the campaign
season is this Thursday in Miami, Florida. One specific objection
raised was to the prohibition of shots of one candidate while the other
candidate is answering questions. Said NBC News spokeswoman Barbara
Levin, “[t]his is a news pool, and we are not subject to agreements
between candidates….We will use pictures as we see fit.” Two of the
four debate moderators, ABC’s Charles Gibson and CBS’s Bob Schieffer,
have not signed off on the agreement yet. PBS, home channel of the
other two moderators, has not yet made a statement. According to the
agreement between the campaigns, moderators who do not sign off on the
rules can be replaced.

* Two Italian women who were kidnapped in Iraq three weeks ago have
been released and arrived in Italy on Tuesday. The women were working
for a humanitarian organization, Bridge to Baghdad, but were taken
hostage when insurgents raided the organization’s office on September
7th. Last week, reports surfaced on a number of websites that the women
had been killed. Details of the release are unclear and Italian
authorities disputed a report that they paid a ransom for the release.
Italian intelligence officials said that an agreement to release the
hostages was reached through intensive negotiations. In addition to the
two Italians, negotiator Philippe Berthe told Al-Arabiya, an
Arabic-language television network, that a tentative agreement had been
reached to release two French journalists taken hostage as well.
Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were reported missing on August
21 after leaving for Najaf from Baghdad.

* A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck parts of California yesterday. The
quake was centered near the town of Parkfield, California’s earthquake
capital. The town is located on the San Andreas Fault and is one of the
most seismically active areas in the world. No injuries were reported,
but there were reports of property damage in the area. The earthquake
hit at 10:15 a.m. PDT and was felt as far north as Sacramento and as
far south as Santa Ana.

*****

Applying to Law School
Science Center 183, 12:30 p.m.

Living Wage Tea: A Dialogue with Al Bloom Concerning His Proposal
Kohlberg Coffee Bar, 3:00 p.m.

Study Abroad Swedish Programs informational session
Pearson 113, 4:00 p.m.

Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium: “Magic Show”
Science Center 101, 4:30 p.m.

Resume Blitz
Career Services, 5:00 p.m.

Frodo and Gollum robot demonstration
Hicks 312, 7:00 p.m.

Indian film screening: Meghe Dhaka Tara
LPAC Cinema, 7:00 p.m.

Swarthmore College Libertarians exploratory meeting and discussion
Kohlberg 218, 7:00 p.m.

WorldTeach Volunteer informational session
Bond Memorial Hall, 7:00 p.m.

“Women and Poetry” poetry sharing and discussion
WRC, 7:00 p.m.

Farenheit 451 film screening
Science Center 199, 8:00 p.m.

Tai Chi class
Upper Tarble, 8:00 p.m.

Film Society movie screenings: Zou Zou
Science Center 101, 9:00 p.m.

Pro-Choice Task Force meeting
Kohlberg 228, 9:15 p.m.

———-

Living Wage Tea: A Dialogue with Al Bloom Concerning His Proposal

Wednesday, September 29
3-4:15 pm
Kohlberg Coffee Bar

President Bloom will attend a tea to answer questions and hear student
perspectives about his just-released draft proposal, which he plans to
bring to the Board of Managers this weekend. The President’s proposal
consists of an increase in the college’s contribution to the health
care premiums to some low-wage workers, as compared with a fully
comprehensive living wage package recommended by the Ad Hoc Living Wage
Committee’s recommendation, which came out last spring. Tea and goodies
will be provided! (And for those just getting out of class at 4, please
do drop by for the last 15 minutes!) Hosted by the Swarthmore Living
Wage and Democracy Campaign.

Questions? Email Alix Gould-Werth, agouldw1.

This message was provided by the Living Wage and Democracy Campaign and
does not reflect the views or opinions of the Daily Gazette.

*****
SPORTS UPDATE

The volleyball team won the first game by the decisive margin of 30-17
and rolled to a 3-1 victory over Bryn Mawr last night.  The win
moves the team to 6-9 overall and 1-3 in Centennial Conference
play.  Erica George ’07 recorded her sixth double-double with 22
kills and 15 digs.  Also starring for the Garnet were Natalie
Dunphy ’05, Emily Conlon ’06 and Patrice Berry ’06.  The team
returns home to Tarble Pavilion Thursday night at 7:00 vs. Gettysburg.

*****

The field hockey game at Bryn Mawr was postponed due to heavy
rains.  The game will be played on Thursday, October 21 at
4:30.  The team returns to action this Saturday at 12:00, home vs.
Dickinson.

*****

Due to wind and heavy rain, today’s home women’s soccer match with
Muhlenberg has been postponed.  No makeup date has been
announced.  The squad next plays this Saturday at 1:00 at
Washington.

*****

Today:
Men’s Soccer at Washington, 4:00 p.m.

Tomorrow:
Volleyball hosts Gettysburg, 4:30 p.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The better work men do is always done under stress and at great
personal cost.”
— William Carlos Williams

***** 

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